need some help with virus removal

i have an external 1Tb drive and i have had a fairly devastating virus on it. the virus puts some icons on my desktop then has fake alerts pop up then my cpu usage sky rockets and then windows will not open. i have scanned the drive over and over. i have put my computer into safe mode and scanned it repeatedly with several virus scans. my laptop is duel booted right now with windows xp pro, and ubuntu (ordered the disc for the stickers.) so if anyone has any idea how i can get the virus off my drive i would like to hear it. i am trying to avoid formating the drive but i will if it comes down to it. i do have about 800gb of stuff on the drive that i would rather not lose but, if it does come down to it i guess i will if i have to.

the virus puts some icons on my desktop then has fake alerts pop up then my cpu usage sky rockets and then windows will not open.

If the problem is occurring at start up, then start ur pc in safe mode then check ur start up items, which are unnecessary, remove them! Another thing may help you, go, C:\Documents and Settings\USER NAME, and find if there exists some unknown program or not! If it is yes, then simply delete it! I told you this, because some days ago I've faced similar problem i.e, every time after connecting to net my pc was creating a new net connection itself! and my broadband got disconnected ! I've solved this problem by deleting the unknown program!
Check, whether It works or not!!

ok well the virus does infect my laptop not every time i use it but every maybe 10 times it will. so i am not sure what its doing. i think it must be when i execute the file(whatever it is.) every time i do contract the virus on my laptop it will do as i prevously posted in the first post then bluescreen, and every time i start it will run for a few minutes then bluescreen. right now i am taking some files off of it so that i can reformat the windows partition so i cannot post a scan log till i get it up and running. as for scans i have used, i have tried: super anti-spyware, avg free, hijackthis and a few others i did a while ago i cant remember...